Sunday, June 20, 2004

Saturday, June 5, 2004 through Friday, June 11, 2004

These days changed my life. I don't know what that change will look like, but I know that it did. Time will tell how. Here are a few things I remember... I watched T.V. more than week than any week this year and probably more than I have in many years. I watched the ceremony surrounding this event. I listened to the words of strong and powerful leaders and his children as they described this man known as Ronald Wilson Reagan. Specifically, I heard eulogies by the Lady Margret Thatcher, Former Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, Former President and Reagan's Vice President, George H. W. Bush, and the current President George W. Bush. Then, I heard the eulogies of his children, Michael Reagan, Patti Davis, and Ronald Prescott Reagan. In a <a href="http://david.dpitts.com/archives/000088.html">former entry</a>, I pointed out the impressive showing that was given. In that entry, I showed a picture from the Ronald Reagan memorial web site that showed the current President Bush, his wife Laura, Vice President Cheney and his wife, former presidents Clinton, Bush, Carter and Ford along with their wives. Former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sat alongside former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. That one seemed beyond real. Former President, George H. W. Bush said about his time while serving as Vice President under Former President Reagan, "I learned kindness; we all did. I also learned courage; the nation did." The current President praised Reagan as a man of strong convictions and endless optimism. "He believed the gentleman always does the kindest thing," Bush said. "He believed people were basically good and had the right to be free. He believed that bigotry and prejudice were the worst things that a person could be guilty of. ... He believed America was not just a place in the world, but the hope of the world." President George W. Bush on Sunday ordered flags lowered to half-staff for 30 days in honor of Reagan.